A music teacher has taken her rhythms to the page with her first children’s book Slug.

After becoming bored with the usual songs she sang with infants, Teresa Dewhurst began to create her own and it was this that inspired her writing.

She said: “I started messing around with poetry for the kids and this story popped out of nowhere.”

The story follows Slug, a mischievous slug who cannot stop eating and meets a few others along the way.

Teresa said: “In my childhood we had four ducks and every day we would go out slug hunting and lift up anything that might have a slug under it and we would feed them to the ducks, we were horrible really, but I wonder if that had something to do with the story.”

Teresa got to see first-hand with her class if her book was a success and has also been out to other schools to do readings.

She said: “I tried to fit it in with a module they are doing at school. I like the idea of rhythm and rhyme, but it does also fit in with the Key Stage 1 syllabus or at my school when they learn about mini beasts. It teaches about healthy eating and friends too.”

As well as reading the book to children, Teresa has classes draw pictures of Slug and make puppets so they can tell the story themselves, she has even created a colouring version of the book.

Illustrations in the book are done by Dr Mark who is Teresa’s son.

She said: “He was at medical school and I showed him the poetry. He likes to draw cartoons and came up with these line drawings and I blew it up, added a few bits and pieces and used them for the book.”

Teresa also feels a driving force behind the book was a famous book about another hungry insect.

She laughs: “My kids were brought up on the Hungry Caterpillar, but all he did was make holes in the food unlike Slug, but yes I think I was driven by competition with the Hungry Caterpillar.”

Slug is out now and available from Amazon or by contacting Teresa directly, she sells them for £5 plus postage. You can get in touch with Teresa at [email protected] or join Slug’s Facebook page.